1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a setting value management system, setting value management method, setting value management service apparatus, image forming apparatus, and computer-readable medium and, more particularly, to a technique of managing at once configuration data serving as setting values for switching the operation of an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some image forming apparatuses store configuration data serving as setting values for switching the operation. Configuration data is stored in the storage device of each image forming apparatus. To change configuration data of all image forming apparatuses, setting needs to be executed by the number of image forming apparatuses. To omit this cumbersome operation, there are various techniques for setting configuration data at once in a plurality of image forming apparatuses from an information processing apparatus.
For example, a host name and domain name serving as part of configuration data are generally set in an image forming apparatus using DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). There is also proposed a technique of managing configuration data at once by arranging configuration data in a location where it can be referred to via a network, and referring to the same configuration data by a plurality of image forming apparatuses (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-130838). As another technique, configuration data is arranged in a network server and transmitted from the server to an image forming apparatus (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-053850).
It is also becoming popular to manage configuration data in an Internet server and set them at once without any limitation of the physical position where an image forming apparatus is installed.
However, introducing a new configuration data setting system may contend with an existing configuration data setting method. For example, when another configuration data setting system is newly installed in an environment where a host name and domain name serving as part of configuration data are set using DHCP, host names and domain names are set double, losing consistency between the setting values. When a plurality of configuration data setting methods coexist and partially set, all setting values in an image forming apparatus cannot be confirmed at once, impairing management convenience.